Museum Folkwang - Collection Online - Spaces that mean the world Theater posters by Frieder Grindler and Volker Pfüller

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Spaces that mean the world
Theater posters by Frieder Grindler and Volker Pfüller
You might imagine that the theatre would guarantee designers special liberty as it has long been one of the creatively most challenging and artistically most demanding themes for the poster medium. However, such liberty needs to be fought for on every occasion; in the exploration of the piece, its current interpretation and mode of presentation, as well as in taking into consideration the ideas of the intendant, director, dramaturge, cast and the theatre owners. The designer needs to make a fundamental decision: when designing the poster, either he orients himself towards the intentions of the presentation or he includes his subjective perspective, developing the poster as an independent contribution to the piece and its presentation. It is within these limits that a theatre poster arises.

The exhibition ›Spaces that mean the world‹ is dedicated to two designers who have been designing theatre posters for many years. Both design their posters as independent contributions: Frieder Grindler uses photomontage, Volker Pfüller drawings and handwritten typography. It is this difference in their starting points that makes it especially interesting to confront their two positions. Doing so not only sharpens one’s view of their particularities and differences, but also makes obvious the equal validity of different solutions for the same task.

Frieder Grindler (*1941) achieved recognition at the end of the 1960s with his spectacular photomontages, made at first for posters for the ›Tübinger Zimmertheater‹. His works seemed to present to the viewer an objective reality whose sources wee photographic. This perception soon proved, at second glance, to be a complete mistake. With complex manipulations of the image, Grindler pierces a theme, visualizing the essential. Together with photomontage, he uses »real montage« to create this impression; situations are staged specifically for the poster and photographed. His playful treatment of the contents allows a complete understanding of the references in the poster only with knowledge of the piece and its presentation.

Volker Pfüller (*1939) leaves a mark with each of his works – only one of his posters can look like that. Few designers stick so closely to their own pictorial language and move flexibly only within self-defined limits. His type of drawing, his use of color and typography are always expressions of a seemingly private style. This raises the question: How much of Volker Pfüller himself is there in each poster? More than you would imagine at first, because he himself draws on the stone, printing plate or foil, himself cuts into the linoleum as often as possible. It is only during the printing process that the design is complete. Pfüller usually depicts the central characters of the piece with the features of the respective actor. Drawing, color and typography provide a portrait study full of character and a commentary on the interpretation of the piece.

Two separate catalogues appear with the exhibition. They conclude a first series of monographs on contemporary poster designers [see http://www.museum-folkwang.de/de/buchbestellung/publikationen]
Exh_Title_S: Spaces that mean the world
Theater posters by Frieder Grindler and Volker Pfüller
Exh_Id: 692
Exh_Comment_S (Verantw): German Poster Museum
Exh_SpareNField01_N (Verantw ID): 242